NORIEGA JURORS SELECTED PROSECUTION TO OPEN IN CASE ON MONDAY

MIAMI -- Nine women and three men were selected on Friday to sit as jurors at deposed Panamanian leader Manuel Antonio Noriega's drug and racketeering trial.

There are eight blacks, two Hispanics and two non-Hispanic whites

The jury includes a nurse, a businesswoman, an insurance company employee, an elementary school teacher, an auto mechanic, a student, several homemakers, a Postal Service letter carrier, a retired construction worker and an unemployed security guard.

"You are now embarked on a very important project," U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler told the jurors after they were sworn in. He advised them to avoid news coverage of the trial and not to discuss the case with anyone.

The jury was selected six years to the day after a Panamanian doctor, Hugo Spadafora, was tortured and beheaded, reportedly on Noriega's orders. It was an irony noted by members of the Panamanian press in Miami covering the trial.

Spadafora had announced a week before his disappearance that he had evidence that Noriega was involved in drug trafficking. He had shared his information with U.S. intelligence agents in Costa Rica. He was abducted while returning to Panama.

His head has never been found, but photos of his mutilated body were distributed in Panama and helped cement grassroots opposition to Noriega's iron-fisted rule.

A Panamanian journalist said Noriega is highly superstitious and would be concerned about the jury's being selected not only on the anniversary of the Spadafora abduction, but also on a Friday the 13th.

"I'm sure he's thinking about this right now," said Tomas Cabal, correspondent for the newspaper Panama America and PRC Channel 4 TV in Panama.

Noriega's trial is scheduled to begin with an opening statement from prosecutors on Monday morning. The trial is expected to last three to five months. Defense attorneys have asked to postpone their opening statement until the close of the government's case.

The Noriega case marks the first time a former leader of a foreign state has been put on trial in a U.S. courtroom for allegedly violating U.S. laws while in his own country.

It has attracted international attention in part because of hints by Noriega that he would attempt to turn the tables on the government and put Washington on trial by revealing many of the secrets he has learned during 20 years of covert cooperation with the United States in Central America.

Noriega claims he is the victim of a White House-led political vendetta.

Prosecutors say he is a racketeer who used his position as military leader of Panama to assist the international drug trade.

He is charged with accepting $4.6 million in payoffs from top members of the Medellin cocaine cartel to protect drug shipments from Colombia via Panama to the United States. He is charged also with protecting shipments of drug money from the United States to banks in Panama.

If convicted, Noriega faces up to 140 years in prison and more than $1 million in fines.

Defense attorneys had expressed concern that they might not be able to select an unbiased jury in Miami with its politically charged Hispanic community. They had estimated that it could take up to six weeks to seat a jury.

But it took only six days to assemble a pool of 80 qualified prospective jurors. The 12 jurors and six alternates were selected from among the 80 in about one hour.

It was the culmination of a colossal effort to find people who could give Noriega a fair trial.

Last spring, anticipating problems, more than 1,200 questionaires were mailed to Dade residents. Of those, 167 prospective jurors were called into court. They were forced to endure several days on hard courtroom benches and occasional questioning by the trial judge, defense attorneys and prosecutors, all trying to unmask hidden biases.

One prospective juror, the wife of the chairman of a Panamanian human rights group in Miami, told Hoeveler that she had heard of Noriega because of his reputation as a violator of human rights. She was excused.

Another juror arrived each day wearing a gold replica around his neck of a semi-automatic assault pistol, a weapon popular among drug dealers. The juror survived the questioning and was among the final 80. He was not selected.